Soak beans 6 to 12 hours. Cut zucchini, carrots, and potatoes into large pieces. Put all the vegetables and beans into a large pot. Place the chicken pieces on top, cover with water, bring to a boil and simmer 2-3 hours. Take out the tomatoes before serving. Add kneidlach or kugelach. Serves 6.

Boil water in a large pot. Add chicken or meat pieces. Skim off brown foam with spoon. When soup is clear, add vegetables and hawaich. Simmer chicken soup for one hour on a low flame. Meat soup should simmer 3-4 hours. Meat and vegetables are served together in a soup bowl. Served with pita, this soup is the traditional Friday night meal of many Yemenite families. Serves 5.

Saute onion in oil until transparent. Cut carrots, potatoes, and squash into chunks. Add remaining ingredients and enough water to cover, plus 3 cups. Season to taste. Cook soup for 1 hour. The oatmeal in this recipe disappears, leaving the soup nice and thick. Serves 6-8.

Variation: Pour into blender or food processor and blend until just chunky or smooth, as desired.

Saute onion and celery in margarine until soft. Pour boiling water over tomatoes to skin, saving water for soup. Skin tomatoes and slice. Add all ingredients except for potato. Cook until rice is almost tender. Add grated potato and continue cooking 15 more minutes. Serves 4-6.

Variation: Save rice to add with grated potato. Cook other ingredients about half an hour. Then puree entire mixture in blender. Pour back into pot and add rice and grated potato. Cook 1/2 hour or more.

Mix all ingredients together well. Refrigerate at least 1 hour. Wet hands, form balls and drop into rapidly boiling soup, or salted water. Cook for 20 minutes. After cooking and cooling, matzah balls can be drained and frozen. Boil again for 15 minutes before serving. Makes 12-20 kneidlach, depending on size.

Recipes from "Taste of Shabbos: The Complete Cookbook" - by the Aish HaTorah Women's Organization.

Combine flax mixture, ramining water, and oil. Then stir in the matzoh meal and (optional) spices.

Refrigerate for 20 minutes to half an hour.

Boil the cooking water. Once it reaches a brisk boil, reduce the heat to low/medium low. Wet your hands and form balls of the refrigerated matzoh mixture and drop the balls gently into the hot water. Cook for 30 - 40 minutes.

My Christian friends are always speaking about “faith.” To me this sounds a lot like blind faith. Is that really the essence of religion?

The Aish Rabbi Replies:

I'm afraid that this is another case of a Christian concept being mis-associated with Judaism.

Let's first define our terms. What is faith?

Webster defines faith as "Belief without proof."

What is knowledge? "An acquaintance with truth, facts or principles through study or investigation."

Faith is usually a product of desire. Have you ever gotten a tip on the market that guarantees you're going to triple your money in a month? A lot of smart people have gotten fleeced because they ignored the evidence and went with their feelings.

Knowledge, on the other hand, is based on evidence. We know there's a place called China because we have too many products in our house saying "made in China." There's a lot of evidence for the existence of China, even though most of us have never been there.

Judaism unequivocally comes down on the side of knowledge, not faith. In Deuteronomy 4:39, the Torah says: "You shall know this day, and understand it well in your heart, that the Almighty is God; in the heaven above and the earth below, there is none other." (This verse is also contained in the prayer, "Aleynu.")

This verse tells us that it is not enough to simply know in your head, intellectually, that God is the Controller of everything. You must know it in your heart! This knowledge is much more profound than an intellectual knowledge. God gave us a brain because he wants us to think rationally about the world, our role in it, and our relationship with God.

A conviction based on desire or feelings alone has no place in Judaism. The Hebrew word "emunah," which is often translated as faith, does not describe a conviction based on feelings or desire. It describes a conviction that is based on evidence.

Once this knowledge is internalized, it effects how a person lives. A person with this knowledge could transform every breathing moment into a mitzvah, for he would do everything for the sake of the heaven. But this is not a "knowledge," that comes easily. Only intensive Torah learning and doing mitzvahs can achieve this knowledge. Every word of Torah we learn moves us just a little bit closer to that goal. And everyone is capable of that.

To learn more, read "The Knowing Heart," by Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (Feldheim.com). This entire book is an explanation of this verse!

In 350 BCE, the building of the second Holy Temple was completed in Jerusalem, as recorded in the biblical Book of Ezra (6:15). The re-building of the Temple had begun under Cyrus when the Persians first took over the Babylonian empire. The re-building was then interrupted for 18 years, and resumed with the blessing of Darius II, the Persian king whom is said to be the son of Esther. The Second Temple lacked much of the glory of the First Temple: There was no Ark of the Covenant, and the daily miracles and prophets were no longer part of the scenery. The Second Temple would stand for 420 years, before being destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE.

You shall know this day and consider it within your heart(Deuteronomy 4:39).

Business people who are involved in many transactions employ accountants to analyze their operations and to determine whether or not they are profitable. They may also seek the help of experts to determine which products are making money and which are losing. Such studies allow them to maximize their profits and minimize their losses. Without such data, they might be doing a great deal of business, but discover at the end of the year that their expenditures exceeded their earnings.

Sensible people give at least as much thought to the quality and achievement of their lives as they do to their businesses. Each asks himself, "Where am I going with my life? What am I doing that is of value? In what ways am I gaining and improving? And which practices should I increase, and which should I eliminate?"

Few people make such reckonings. Many of those that do, do so on their own, without consulting an expert's opinion. These same people would not think of being their own business analysts and accountants, and they readily pay large sums of money to engage highly qualified experts in these fields.

Jewish ethical works urge us to regularly undergo cheshbon hanefesh, a personal accounting. We would be foolish to approach this accounting of our very lives with any less seriousness than we do our business affairs. We should seek out the "spiritual C.P.A.s," those who have expertise in spiritual guidance, to help us in our analyses.

Today I shall...

look for competent guidance in doing a personal moral inventory and in planning my future.

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